


The Child In Us

by aislingyngaio



Series: The Generation Before [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-30
Updated: 2005-08-30
Packaged: 2017-12-07 10:51:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/747687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aislingyngaio/pseuds/aislingyngaio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all have a child in us that will never be repressed. Lily learnt that the hard way, or maybe not. With the Marauders as full of surprises as ever, together they managed to create an atmosphere of love and joy that will hopefully last forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Child In Us

"Once upon a time, there were four very talented wizards by the names of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, who were also dubbed 'the Marauders'. Even at their young age of seventeen, they were considered the coolest students that ever roamed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…"

"Black, save your daydreams for later, will you? Some of us don't want to start the day with a recount of your so-called past glories."

"Oh, but Lily! We need to constantly remind ourselves of our past deeds in order to set that as a targeted minimum point for our future." As he said that, Sirius Black gazed off in the distance in a very dreamy way. Opposite him, Lily Evans rolled her eyes exasperatedly, but smiled at her boyfriend's best friend before she continued eating her breakfast.

In their seventh year at Hogwarts, the Marauders had become rather dull and tame, which could possibly be because of Lily and James's new and blossoming relationship. It could also be the fact that, to everyone's surprise, especially to the subject in question himself, James Potter was chosen as Head Boy by Dumbledore! Of all people! The point was, that, the Marauders weren't living up to expectations anymore. Which was a shame, really, as their pranks were getting really great. And as they grew up and mature, their pranks turned from "for fun" to "have fun". Therefore, it was a little disappointing that they were lying low.

Everyday, students would wake up anticipating the Marauders' next trick up their sleeves. They _must_ be up to something, since the calm surface of the water usually wasn't all it seems. But, day after day, they were heartily disappointed. Add to that the tensed atmosphere that surrounded Hogwarts as more and more deaths and murders by Voldemort and the Death Eaters were reported, the school's mood was at an all-time low. The only person who didn't care less about the dark aura surrounding them was Argus Filch, to nobody's surprise, as he was a Squib, hated students like hell, and especially the Marauders when their pranks became extremely messy and hard to clear up. His obsession in life was to beg Dumbledore to allow him hang miscreants by their ankles to the ceiling, which, of course, Dumbledore refused to comply.

Sirius, being shushed by Lily, had lost the thread of his glory-talk and decided not to continue with it. Instead, he began to complain. "This is _boring_. Can't we have something interesting to do? Prongs? Please, Mr. Head Boy? Pretty pretty please?" he said, trying but failing to put on his best puppy face expression. "It's been _ages_ since our last public display. People are starting to think that we lost our touch. We _must_ destroy that perception immediately or it'll ruin our legend. We must be made known to future Hogwarts students as the greatest Marauders, and we need to establish and keep our reputation as the best troublemakers that ever studied at Hogwarts. I certainly don't want to be known as 'Marauder gone soft'. _Damn_."

"Take your damn breakfast, Padfoot. We'll think about that later," James replied with his mouth full, with an arm around Lily's waist. Sirius, not satisfied, began to whine. "But Prongs! That's what you say _every time_. The only prank we've played so far was our traditional start-of-term prank and Christmas prank. But other than that? 'We'll think about that later,'" he mimicked James in a high voice, causing James to smile tolerantly and shrug.

Defeated, Sirius turned to the next person to vent his frustration. "Damn it, Lily, you trained him too well. Now he's so obedient when it comes to you and lost his Marauding self. I wish I could say the same for controlling him. Unfortunately you took him… Hey wait… Or maybe…" he eyed her suspiciously. "… maybe you hid my Jamesie somewhere else and had this… this… creature to impersonate him? _Where the hell did you hide him, Evans? Where? Return my Jamesie boy to me!_ " he hollered, clutching his heart dramatically. The Gryffindors in the vicinity snickered at that before Sirius snapped, "Back to breakfast, you! And mind your own business!" They promptly shut up and did as they were told.

James was laughing along with Remus, Lily and Peter, who was unnoticed in general by Hogwarts students and teachers alike when he was with the Marauders, as he was always overshadowed by James, Sirius, and even Remus. It wasn't hard to see why: he was not as talented, clever or good-looking as them. The three other Marauders, however, took him under their wing and looked after him. He repaid their kindness (or protection) by making himself useful when they were planning for their pranks. It was very advantageous when they needed someone small to snoop around, like Peter in his Animagus form.

"Bloody hell, Padfoot. I _am_ James Potter. And _don't_ call me your Jamesie or Jamesie boy. You know I resent that," he chuckled appreciatively. Sirius shrugged, pretending to be down. However, him being Sirius Black, he couldn't even pretend to be sad for 5 seconds. An evil smile played on his lips, a smile James knew very well. It was the smile he wore each time he thought of a new prank. It was the smile he wore each time he threw the bucket of ice-cold water to wake Peter up in time for class. It was the smile he wore each time a certain Severus Snape, a.k.a. Snivellus, walked past, only to be hexed by them especially during fifth year.

Knowing that this couldn't be good, James wanted to duck out of the danger zone, but Sirius was faster. Quick as lightning, he threw the piece of kipper he was about to put into his mouth at James. James dodged quickly, his excellent reflexes from Quidditch training kicking in like instinct. The kipper still managed to whack his left elbow, however. He retaliated by flinging a roll at his best friend, who promptly ducked and grabbed a piece of toast as James bite into a slice of bacon he took from the Gryffindor table and throwing the rest to Sirius. Surprisingly, he caught it deftly in his mouth and munched on it slowly and deliberating, as if to mock James. The result of his parody was a faceful of porridge (luckily it wasn't piping hot).

Now really getting into the mood of things, the two Marauders took turns pouring cool pumpkin juice over each other while laughing hysterically. Then they proceeded tossing everything on the breakfast table at one another. Bacon, eggs, rolls, kippers, porridge, toast, sausages were flying all over the place now as they advanced to splattering each other with jam, marmalade, butter, mayonnaise, orange juice, milk, and even tea and coffee. The poor house-elves in the kitchens had no idea why the Gryffindor table's food was suddenly depleting so fast as they tried to refill the plates, bowls and pitchers as quick as they can so no student would go hungry.

Lily, partly because she was unable to contain herself, and also because every face in the Great Hall was staring at her (she was the Head Girl, and the unanimously voted Ms. Two Goody Shoes at Hogwarts), spoke up in her best death voice, "James, Sirius, stop it, _now_!" James and Sirius froze comically in the action of firing their bullets (actually, toasts) and looked at her enquiringly. In an effort to calm down the storm of war, she voiced out, "James, please, you're Head Boy. Can't you set an example here? People are staring. And," she lowered to a whisper as she continued, pleading, "can't you two keep this in private if your extremely pented-up excess energy can't resist lashing out at each other?"

James and Sirius pulled thoughtful faces at the same time, then said together, "No, Lily, sorry, can't do." Sirius added, "We haven't had enough fun since the year started. Besides, if you haven't notice, the school's been really downcast lately. It is our responsibility as Marauders to liven up the atmosphere. We do– ack! James! No fair! You attacked while I was busy preach– ack! Now, you're really asking for it boy!" With that, he charged towards his best friend to get a better aim, in order to repay him for the two toasts in his face.

Lily turned to Remus, the more responsible one of the four, and prepared to roll eyes with him at James and Sirius's childish behaviour, only to look in shock that Remus was actually absentmindedly levitating a piece of _buttered_ toast above _her_ head. She shrieked, "REMUS LUPIN DON'T YOU DARE," which proved to be a bad move, as Remus jerked out of his glazed look, causing the buttered toast to fall _smack_ on her red hair. She was overwhelmed and shouted, "REMUS JOHN LUPIN YOU DID _NOT_ JUST DO THAT! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT TO ME? THAT'S IT! THAT WAS THE LAST STRAW! THIS MEANS _WAR_!"

And before Remus could comprehend what was going on, Lily had pulled out her wand and charmed the food around Remus to pelt or pour on him mercilessly. She was laughing maniacally as he attempted pitifully to shield himself from the food. All around the Great Hall, students and teachers, and even ghosts, were staring at her even more. Lily Evans, law abider, was participating in a food fight? Remus Lupin was left with no time to have such recollections, however. Hastily leaving his seat, he, too, pulled out his wand and aimed it at Lily, laughing. The two top Charm students were soon trying various ways to protect themselves from the attacking food while managing to send it back to the other person.

A few metres away, James and Sirius, attracted by the commotion, turned and saw the Head Girl and the Gryffindor seventh year Prefect having a magical food duel. They were stunned, but not so much so that it was Lily and Remus duelling. They wondered aloud together, "Why didn't we think of it?" before joining the fray, cackling madly, as Sirius puts it, "the more the merrier".

In the midst of all this confusion, Remus finally managed to get past James's defences and hit him squarely on the face with a piece of buttered toast. Peeling it off, James roared at his friend as he flung it carelessly away, "Remus Lupin, you are so going to get it when I'm through with you! I swear to you… What?"

Remus didn't answer. Instead he looked with horror at a spot behind James. "Uh oh," he breathed worriedly. Lily was also struck dumb, her expression frozen with shock. Normally when Lily was speechless, something was seriously out of place. Uncomprehending, James and Sirius turned around… and faced a very red Minerva McGonagall, with butter on her face and the piece of toast in her hand.

The whole Great Hall went silent as they waited with baited breath for McGonagall, the strictest teacher and Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts, to explode like a volcano as she always did. Well, who wouldn't, when they, the innocent bystander, had butter and toast flung into their faces? This is bad, James thought, though he was not afraid. Years of receiving detention, which he did quite cheerfully, most of the time with Sirius, and occasionally with Remus and Peter, made him used to reading the teacher's expression as she gave them detention, in order to guess how many of them they'd gotten. It had, more or less, harden their fear, and the fact that he was Head Boy, for once, didn't bother him one bit. He was back to being James Potter, the Marauder.

McGonagall took a deep breath and said with a steady voice, "Mr. Potter, I expected better behaviour than this. I thought when Albus appointed you Head Boy, you would have changed for the better. You should be setting a good example for your fellow classmates and students, not behaving like a four-year-old throwing a tantrum. As for you, Ms. Evans," she turned on Lily, who looked a little ashamed at being caught. "You should have at least stopped them, not participate. I thought you had more sense than the four of them put together… _Don't_ interrupt me, Mr. Black, you deserved that," she said, as Sirius tried in vain to protest. "Throwing food at others? What nonsense is this? And Mr. Lupin, what have you got to say for yourself? You were Prefect for three years with Ms. Evans, you should be putting your friends in line, not cross the line yourself."

She breathed deeply again, then continued, "I am extremely disappointed with you and all four of you will receive detention." Lily's eyes flew up at the mention of detention. She sighed. What did she do to deserve this? McGonagall went on, "Your duty would be to clean up the Great Hall. Perhaps that would teach you a lesson, in case you are prepared to dirty it further by having food fights _again_."

They groaned. The Great Hall would take _hours_ to scrub it clean. Resigned to that cold, hard fact, Lily mumbled, "Yes, Professor," and took off for the nearest broom closet to look for buckets and mops. The other three just stood there, momentarily frozen and struck dumb by McGonagall's harsh punishment. _Clean the Great Hall_? None of them got that kind of detention before. What was McGonagall playing at?

"Oh, Ms. Evans?" McGonagall called as Lily brushed past her. Lily turned back respectfully and waited. McGonagall walked up to her and muttered, "I didn't say to clean up without magic. I just said clean up," Lily looked up, startled. McGonagall's eyes were, for once, twinkling with the same sparks as Professor Dumbledore's wise, sometimes mischievous, blue ones. Grinning, she answered, "Right you are, Professor." McGonagall grinned back, and winked at Lily. Lily was extremely mystified. _What_ had possessed the strictest teacher on earth? It almost seemed as if she was a bit… naughty… today. But she wasn't complaining, oh no! So much the better that way.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, Ms. Evans, I need to go wash off this butter on my face. Be sure that I see the Great Hall clean when I return," McGonagall's voice brought Lily out of her inner musings and thoughts. Lily's eyes sent the Transfiguration teacher out before she returned to the mess the four of them created. Pointing her wand at the floor, she said "Scourgify" in her head and the mess cleared up at once, leaving the Great Hall as clean as ever. She loved her prowess at casting non-verbal spells.

James, Sirius and Remus stared at her like she was insane. "McGonagall told us to clean up and you just used your wand?" Sirius asked disbelievingly. Lily shrugged. "Well, she never said not to use magic," she answered, then couldn't resist but add, smiling, "She practically _told_ me to use magic! I wonder what's gotten into her today."

Slowly, the three men grinned back at her. This was even better than they had thought! Not only did they had a food fight right in the middle of the Great Hall, defying everyone (particularly one Argus Filch), they'd got off without a scratch! Even McGonagall approved! OK, maybe not approve, exactly, but she didn't really punish them. Wow. Hogwarts was great!

Lily and the three Marauders sat down, still beaming widely. Then Lily said for all of them, "I guess we won't ever grow up completely. Our small, innocent child is still in us. Thank Merlin for that."

– _Finis –_


End file.
